Challenger +2: True Attack +25 (which is same as Attack Up XL) and Affinity +20% when monster is enraged. Stacks with Attack Up and Peak Performance (Unscathed) skills, but not Latent Power (Gloves Off).

HG Earplugs: Immune to all large monster roars. Particularly helpful against many super G-Rank monsters, including being undisturbed through Apex tranformations. Monster roaring while mounted does not raise their mouth icon.

Rodeo God: Easier time both getting and successfully finishing mounts. As as a side effect it allows you to hold the monster in the rodeo animation for longer if necessary, so teammates can sharpen or heal.

Sharpness +1: Necessary with the vast majority of weapons, only the Nerscylla/Seregios/Gogmazios/Rusted Kushala Insect Glaives come with natural purple sharpness.

Steady Hand: Reduces the sharpness reduction of weapons by 50%, which has the effect of doubling the size of the sharpness bar. Almost essential for high damage throughput with the Hellruin Glaive due to its bad durability. Also prevents attacks from bouncing, which lets you combo out uninterrupted.

Bonus Skills

Detect: Shows monster locations briefly at the start of the quest, and a more detailed icon of the monster when paintballed. Shows monster being idle, attacking hunters, moving areas, sleeping, and all the while showing what direction it's facing.

Notes
This is my general purpose Insect Glaive armor. In my opinion, the Hellruin Glaive "Omen" glaive is the perfect match for this set. It has bad natural sharpness and durability, which is mitigated completely by the Sharpness+1 and Steady Hand. Steady Hand also prevents bouncing on hard parts, which doesn't really matter since even bounced attacks have a chance to apply blast which tends to break them to the point where you can attack normally. Rathalos heads, Gravios and Basarios bits, Najarala tails, etc. will not interrupt your combos anymore.

HG Earplugs became my favorite skill due to the fact that monsters are always completely immobile while roaring, and that means you have a free chance to attack or gather nectar from the head. Note that monsters like Tigrex, Akantor, Ukanlos, etc. will still damage you if you're close enough. This stacks well with Challenger +2, since it will activate as soon as the monster becomes enraged which is the moment before it roars. If you already have red nectar, you can start attacking with your increased attack and affinity before the monster has time to react. I noticed that this tends to lead to trips soon after the monster becomes enraged, which massively reduces hunt times as you can attack it when it's down rather than have it rampage around and require you to waste time using healing items.

Rodeo God is self-explanatory, but HG Earplugs allows you to continue stabbing through monster roars. Gogmazios, Khezu, and sometimes Gravios roar more frequently than average and this lets you complete mounts faster and more reliably.

Bombardier (Bomb Boost) would've helped the blast damage, but if you're hunting in a group and someone else is using a blast weapon too then you'll only be exploding constantly early in the fight. Focus on hard parts like the head or wings, then once the hunt has gone on and the monster's blast threshold is high, you can assist with tail cutting. I always eat for Felyne Pyro, which is sauteed (first option) meat and alcohol, to increase blast damage and it also gives the large attack boost.

Note that in the photo, I have an extra Evasion Jewel 2 in the set and the Disabler Jewel is in the weapon. That is not necessary.

Important Skills

Rodeo God: Aids in the ease of getting and successfully extending and completing mounts.

Evasion +1: Natural addition for the Mikumikumi set, this allows for safer evading due to IG having to stick close to the monster.

Earplugs: Good against most monsters, this comes naturally with the Mikumikumi armor set.

Status Attack +1: Increases the potency of status application. This is good since poison works over time and as such you want to apply it as soon as possible. Important when hunting Kushala Daora, as poison disables its black wind barrier.

Sharpness +1: Necessary to extract purple sharpness from most end game weapons.

Bonus Skills

Windproof (Low): Natural from the Mikumikumi, however in my experience it's not particularly useful. Huntress still flinches from most wind pressure.

Notes
This set is primarily for hunting Kushala Daora and its rusted variant, although its extreme ice resistance makes it good for Ukanlos as well (Zamtrios too, but it's not particularly difficult). Ice Res > 20 means you will not be blighted by it, but take care as you can still be inflicted by the 'snowman' status. Rodeo God helps with getting mounts, with Kushala jumping in the air during mounts a good strategy to help hunt times is to drop bombs underneath it since it will return down whether or not the mount is successful. Status Attack +1 helps with getting monsters poisoned, which as I said before is essential to a quick Kushala hunt.

Normal grade Earplugs are not that useful in my opinion, since most G-rank monsters require High Grade. You are not protected against any massive monster roars, and certain monsters punish you after roars like Gravios and Khezu. Normal Earplugs are also attained when you obtain the IG Triple Up boost (having all nectars active), which makes this skill redundant.

Similarly, Windproof (Low) is a beyond useless skill as you will still flinch when Diablos Digs, Chameleos flaps its tail, when Magalas glide past you, etc. I'm not sure exactly what it prevents, but if it wasn't included for free with the armor set I would not recommend it.

This set is highly recommended, as you can start with Mounting Master instead of Rodeo God with a very obtainable Mounting +4 --- talisman...although by G2/G3 you should have access to a pretty good one. It doesn't necessarily have to be used with an IG, any poison (or other status) weapon is great. Azure Skylark CB, Chameleos Blades DB, Lunatic Rose SnS...the fact that you don't need weapon slots also helps with selection.

Based off of the Bai Bai Kaiser template set. Nothing special looking really. The appearance changes drastically if you use the 'filler' armor pieces, the Skull Visage and the Tetsucabra/Velociprey Greaves.

Sheath Control: This combined skill gives Punish Draw, which allows unsheath attacks to do stun damage and slightly increases attack, and Quick Sheathe, which allows for faster weapon sheathing. This is great, since this armor set is basically a hit and run until the monster falls down strategy enabler.

Sharpness +1: Thankfully comes naturally with this armor set.

Critical Draw: The Crit Draw decoration in the chest allows it to boost it to +9 alone. Critical Draw adds +100% affinity to draw attacks, which is basically guaranteed 125% damage.

Focus: Allows the charging process to hit Level 3 take a lot less time. This is essential to high damage throughput, since you want to hit two Level 3's and the roundhouse finisher while a monster is down.

Bonus Skills

Attack Up (Small): Thankfully due to my talisman choice I was able to add Attack Up in addition to all the other amazing skills.

Cold Surge: Not completely important since you regain stamina while unsheathe attacking/charging, but if you have an extra slot in your weapon or talisman you can negate it with a single Cold Res decoration. I've never seen it be a problem, but if you're really worried you should bring Dash Juice anyway since Iceblight also increases how quickly your stamina decreases.

Notes
This is a highly versatile set that brings out the vast majority of endgame Great Swords. Cera Cymmetry is the best for raw damage (1776 Attack in my configuration) but anything works as long as you take advantage of the heavy punishing skills on the unsheath. Not much to say other than hit and run, and go for the head whenever possible. You want to get the two Level 3 charges and the roundhouse finisher, so the usual combo is holdX (Lv3) -> X (slap) -> Down+X (Lv3) -> A (roundhouse). Note that you can evade out of any of those moves except the last one, should the monster be moving or getting up before you can finish.

Artillery God: Raises the damage dealt by Crag Shots, since Crag is the primary ammunition for this set (hence its name).

Bonus Shot: Adds an extra round to the rapid fire salvo, which essentially adds free ammo. Because Crag Shot (and Cluster Shot) is so limited in how many the huntress can carry, this is necessary to add extra rounds to the restricted supply.

Partbreaker: Built in to the EX Glyph set, although it was a skill I specifically searched for. Might as well have the Crag Shots obliterate the monster heads, as I won't be able to help slice tails off. Also has the side effect of helping the monster flinch if I aim for other body parts, particularly fragile parts like the wings or legs.

Clandestine: This is one hell of a combined skill, which is Load Up, Combo+20% and Sneak. Load Up adds an additional round per magazine, and Sneak means the monster will target the hunter less. More explained in the notes below.

Bonus Skills

Divine Blessing: This skill came naturally with the EX Glyph complete set, this means every time you take damage there's a 25% chance to take 70% of the damage you would've taken. This really is a divine blessing, given how low the defense on gunner armor is. Every once in awhile this skill will activate at the right time and really save you from carting.

Notes
Clandestine was the primary skill I was looking for, as everything it contains is extremely helpful. Load Up means there is an extra shot per magazine, allowing more shots before reloading. This is important for high damage throughput, although mitigated somewhat by my ledgehop reload style of play. Combination +20% speaks for itself, and as Crag S only lets you carry 9 shots in the Gunner's Pouch you will be combining it during the hunt...along with other things like Lifepowders, Barrel Bombs, Traps, and other handy things that gunners need in order to be successful in a team. Sneak allows you to avoid being targeted as much by monsters during hunts, which is good since monsters tend to seek out the gunners first. For even higher likelihood of not being targeted, you can attach the Silencer instead of the Power Barrel.

Because this set requires no slots on the weapon, the talisman required does not have to be anything special. Artillery is an incremental skill, and as such a basic Artillery +6 --- will allow for Artillery Novice which raises Crag S damage by 10%. Artillery Master and Artillery God increase damage further by 20% and 30% respectively, but you will still be dealing KO damage so some good aiming will stun the monster and allow your team to go ham on it.

The resistances on this armor set mirror Lao Shan Lung's own, but basically it's a Mikumikumi with its extreme values closer to 0. You no longer have >20 Ice Res, but Fire is -5 instead of -16. Stamina shouldn't really be an issue with this type of weapon, so being affected by Waterblight and Iceblight aren't the end of the world.

I use this set for fun, or if I am fighting monsters that either don't wiggle around a lot (Rathian) or have faces that I need to break for parts (Teostra). Crag Lv2 ammunition is good fun to have on rapid, and the God's Archipelago also rapids Clust Lv1 for attempting to break everything. Careful usage around other hunters allows you to fire Normal Shot Lv2 ammunition on rapid, which is the best all around ammo to use with its great magazine size and the fact that you can bring 99 bullets with you to each hunt. The Vayu Sedition is better for general purpose hunting since it rapids both Normal S2 and Slicing S along with its auto-reloading ability, but once I tried Crag it made it hard to go back.

This is another Star Knight full set, this time for the gunner. It looks exactly the same as the Blademaster version, which means it looks great. I changed the pigment to a dark green to match the Seregios claws on the end of the bow I'm using.

Weapon Required: Gunner ---

Talisman Required: ANYTHING o--, FastCharge +1 ---

Weapon Used: Kama Sedition (Bow) Life Hone

Talisman Used: FastCharge +3, Expert +12 ---

Armor Schematic

Weapon

Star Knight Cap (Charger Jewel 3)

Star Knight Vest

Star Knight Guards (Charger Jewel 3)

Star Knight Coat

Star Knight Leggings (Flawless Jewel 2)

Talisman

Important Skills

Challenger +2: Adds Attack Up XL levels of damage in addition to increasing affinity by a further 20% when a monster in the same area becomes enraged.

Focus: Necessary to raise damage throughput, the Seregios bow is great for charging to its Rapid L5 Level 3.

Peak Performance: Attack Up L level of damage when at full health, the bow is Life Honed as a result to keep you there as much as possible without having to sheathe or rely on teammates.

Load Up: Load Up is necessary in order to unlock the Level 3 charge on the Kama Sedition, and it's much worth it.

Bonus Skills

Rodeo God: It's really nice it comes naturally with the Star Knight set, but kind of an optional skill with Bow in my opinion. You probably shouldn't be mounting unless the blademasters really suck at it.

Critical Eye +1: This one was a side effect from my talisman. The Kama Sedition comes with a natural 30% affinity, so adding more isn't really that helpful especially since you can't take advantage of elemental or status crit skills.

Notes
First off, this set does not require any specific talisman as long as you have three extra slots available for FastCharge. The armor itself has two extra slots, meaning any talisman with at least one slot will do. This lets you add any additional skills as you see fit, my FastCharge talisman came with enough Expert to add Critical Eye +1, but I'm sure there's better talismans out there. Earplugs is recommended if possible in order to not interrupt charging, but I don't think you can get HG Earplugs with this set since the highest Hearing talisman boost is +8.

The Seregios bows have an ability to boost attack power with the Close Range coatings, which essentially adds to the amount of power phials you can carry. In a hunting party of four, I noticed that I didn't completely run out of coatings before the hunt was over. You can bring materials to combine more in a longer hunt, but it's not really that necessary. As long as you stay within critical distance and take advantage of the Power Shot you should be fine.

Resistances are amazing due to it being Star Knight, and although none of it prevents you from getting blighted it at least prevents severe blights. That said, Dash Juice is normally utilized during hunts due to the constant charging nature of the weapon, so rolling for Fireblight and the increased stamina drain of Ice and Waterblight doesn't become a problem.

Also please note I don't use the Bow very much, this was just a set designed to take as much advantage of the built in skills of the gunner Star Knight set as I've helped more than a few people with the Event Quest and as such had enough materials to make it.

Another Mikumikumi template in use, this time geared for evasion and status rather than Mounting like with my Poison Stick set.

Weapon Required: Blademaster ---

Talisman Required: Handicraft +3 oo-

Weapon Used: Venomous Perfume (Gunlance) Attack Hone

Talisman Used: Handicraft +5, Psychic +10 oo-

Armor Schematic

Weapon

Hat (Earplug Jewel 1)

Chest (Evasion Jewel 2)

Arms (Disabler Jewel 2)

Waist (Evasion Jewel 2, Earplug Jewel 1)

Feet (Evasion Jewel 2)

Talisman (Earplug Jewel 1, Earplug Jewel 1)

Ignore the decoration in the Gunlance, it's a Guard Up jewel that I didn't remove from a previous set.

Important Skills

Evasion +2: Comes fairly naturally with the Mikumikumi template. Nice for 'safe' usage, allowing you to evade through many attacks that you might not have time to sheathe for. Gravios heat rays, Gogmazios oil beams, etc.

HG Earplugs: As I mentioned before, this one's a personal favorite.

Sharpness +1: Necessary to extract purple sharpness from the vast majority of weapons.

Status Attack +1: Aids in getting the poison into the monster. This one only requires a single Disabler Jewel 2, thanks to the Chameleos parts in the armor.

Bonus Skills

Windproof (Low): As I mentioned before, this one comes built in with the Mikumikumi template and I believe is a useless skill to have.

Detect: Only active due to my talisman. It is helpful, but there are much better skills to add if you don't have +8 or higher to begin with.

Notes
As I designed this set to poison a monster as fast as possible for maximum effect (and getting to Kushala before it enrages), I did not go with any points in Artillery. Shelling is useful for breaking parts, but not useful for inflicting status. I realize that the Gunlance is not the best status weapon, but when I first made this set I had never tried using any other weapon before. The Venomous Perfume is a great weapon, and this Mikumikumi version brings it out to the fullest in my opinion.

Sorry for the prevalence of poison status weapons, but I really think Kushala is the easiest way to farm Large Elder Dragon Gems and as a result I built a lot of sets to hunt them with my group.

This flashy yellow Honed Blade template is named after its root weapon, the Haboob. The 'Bio' refers to Bio Researcher which is a skill deliberately added in to face off against blast type monsters, particularly Raging Brachydios and Crimson Fatalis.

Honed Blade: This is designed out of the Honed Blade template set, which is convenient in the sense that it's only a four-piece set rather than a five-piece like the vast majority of templates. The Chameleos head gave great Hearing stats and I also like how it looks. It's not terribly out of color or style scheme of the rest of the armor, either. Honed Blade is a combined skill of Sharpness +1 and Attack Up (Large).

Bio Researcher: The important part of this skill is negating Blastblight. Huntress will still trip or flinch when encountering it, but will not require evading to rub off. This greatly reduces the difficulty of hunts, due to the fact that you won't get 1-shotted by a normal attack anymore. This is also relatively easy to insert into sets due to it having 1-slot +2 type decorations.

Bonus Skills

Latent Power +1: I'm not even quite sure what it does, it raises some stats if you take enough damage or are in the same area as a large monster for a long enough time. It was the only skill close enough to activate with a decoration, which is why it made the cut. With a better talisman, it will be swapped for something else...ideally Challenger (Spirit) or Artillery.

Notes
As I've mentioned before, this set was designed to go against the blast monsters. I know for sure that Molten Tigrex does not have blast damage apply to him, and figured that paralyzing the monsters in team hunts is more useful. Sleep is too dangerous for random players in a hall who are unaware of what's going on, and poison does nothing other than minor damage to blast monsters. The Desert Rose is one of the best Charge Blades, and I decided to use it.

I could not fit Status or Artillery skills in it with my talisman, as I figured getting in a couple extra attacks while the monster is roaring is more important. Paralyzing a monster immediately is not necessary, and I often find myself paralyzing it too soon (a couple of hits into the first mount, usually). My preferred combo for status CBs is X -> X -> X+A repeatedly; I merely keep the shield charged for extra damage and rarely ever use the full burst, and as such Honed Blade is much better than Sharpness +1 and Artillery I think.

There's only a couple of skills in this armor set, but what's there is highly useful and it's of a specialized design to begin with. If I find a better talisman I'll revise it, but it does well enough as it is.

As a side note, hunting Molten Tigrex with this set is a joy. Keep your phials full, and when he does normal attacks when he's not enraged (scraping his talons and flinging the rock, or spinning) Guard Point the attack and press X+A and you'll full burst him before he recovers.

This set was built out of necessity in order to farm for Furious Rajang's Ghoulish Gold Gorer.

Weapon Required: Blademaster ---

Talisman Required: Sheathing +7, Expert +10 oo-

Weapon Used: Ostracon Oblivion (Great Sword) Attack Hone

Talisman Used: Sheathing +7, Expert +11 oo-

Armor Schematic

Weapon

Gogma Helm (Draw Jewel 1)

EX Escadora Soul (Draw Jewel 2)

GX Tempest Trails

Gogma Faulds (Expert Jewel 2)

Maiden's Socks X

Talisman (Sheath Jewel 2)

Note that in the photo I have a Blessing Jewel 1 in the helm, that is not necessary. The Draw Jewel 1 is in my GS instead.

Also note that the hands and feet equipment are of the Torso Up type, so you're not limited to these. Lower rarity Black Belt arms and Tetsucabra/Velociprey X feet are easier to make.

Important Skills

Critical Eye +2: Increases Affinity by 15%. This brings static Affinity of the Ostracon Oblivion to -5% for a more reliable and consistent damage throughput. This is not completely necessary, as there is also Crit Draw for the unsheath charge attack.

Critical Draw: Increases Affinity on unsheath attacks by 100%. Combined with the Critical Eye, this almost guarantees 125% damage dealt when smashing down on a Rajang's head.

Quick Sheath: Necessary in order to take advantage of the Crit Draw skills, and handy to have against a monkey that moves quickly and hits hard.

Enlightened Blade: This is a combined skill that consists of Awaken (allows greyed-out elemental or status weapons to use them), Element Attack Up (elemental attacks deal 110% damage), and Status Attack +1 (status application is 112.5%). This allows the Ostracon Oblivion to make use of its sleep element, and gives it a small buff since it's not that large to begin with.

Notes
If you thought the Baibai Kaiser set was for hitting and running, you have no idea. The tactics for this armor set is simply Lv1 unsheath on the Rajang's head whenever you can, until it falls asleep. Then you are able to set bombs and Lv3 the head for maximum partbreaking. There is no Focus in this set since except for the wakeup/post-mount Lv3, you should only be unsheath smashing the horns and then putting it away. Ideally you'd be hunting Furious Rajang in a group with similar sets, or to assist a dedicated sleep hunter with flinching possibility and some status application.

If you're trying hard to make a Honed Blade set or finish off a Rajang-based weapon, give this set a try. Don't forget your traps and especially your barrel bombs...and eat for Pyro.

This is my charm run set for G-rank farming. Use the method outlined by Gaijinhunter here; basically, eat for Explorer and subquest out of the G2 quest Sovereign of the Sky by mounting the Rathalos twice. Don't laugh at how it looks, it works.

Charm God: 50% chance to mine 2 talismans at once when gathering/mining, assuming you would've received one in the first place.

Gathering God: Maximizes the chance to gather/mine. Not sure if this affects rare (ie. gold) spots, but it helps on the silver spots where you can still get both talismans and Heavy/Strong Armor Spheres.

Mounting Master: Rodeo God (or even Mounting Master) is not necessary since Rathalos is a relatively easy monster to read both normally and when mounted, but it helps getting the mount for the first time and reliably finishing it. Triple Up nectars will even negate the roars so if the Rathalos roars it's pretty much a guaranteed mount completion.

Bonus Skills

Quick Sheath: The Torso Up on the Guildmarm chest means that Sheathing is at +8 already, so it was easy to put in. There's not really any other necessary skills for this quest except maybe Earplugs, so I threw in the Black Gravios waist to activate the skill.

Notes
This is a set that is completely utility and as such does not look very good. It does produce results however, I've gotten 4 rows of talismans/relics before.

Getting the Felyne Hairband X is actually rather difficult and time consuming, if you can't or don't want to get it then you can substitute your favorite 3-slot head armor and fill it with enough Charmer Jewel 1s to activate the base skill Charm Collector. 20% to get two at once is better than 0%. Likewise, almost any Charmer talisman and the FHX will activate Charm Chaser, which is fine too.

You might wanna dump several armor spheres in this set to survive two consecutive Rathalos attacks, as he tends to stun you if he catches you with the tail flip or fireballs. I'm happy that the Fire resistance is positive with this set, a very convenient outcome.

The final note for this set is that I deliberately chose IGs with natural purple sharpness. This is not completely necessary, I just find maxing out at white sharpness with a G-rank armor set is something I prefer to avoid. There are plenty of great natural white sharpness glaives, but that being said the Gogmazios and Seregios are the ones I use. I find that the Gogmazios glaive dulls a bit quicker than I'd prefer, if I make a single mistake while attempting mounts or hit anything else during the course of the quest it will dull to white before I subquest out. The Seregios glaive's natural ability to sharpen itself mitigates this, and as such it is the one I prefer. Along with its 10% affinity compared to Gogma's -10% and the exact same raw, the Lana Sedition is utterly superior for this purpose. I left these weapons unhoned, since I doubt it will noticeably affect the ease of obtaining mounts; charm running as a group minimizes single weapon hone effects further and as such you should spend your ZWGs elsewhere.

Note that the arms are Torso Up parts, and as such they are variable. The GX Tempest Trails (event Amatsumagatsuchi) provide better defense, but the Black Belt Guards go better visually with the set in my opinion.

Important Skills

Attack Up Medium: This is the primary reason why this armor set is a work in progress, ideally Attack Up Large would be possible for more leniency in hame runs in regard to missed shots, botched reloads, or just hunting high-HP monsters. If doing a Deviljho 140GQ, two HBGs with AUM and one with AUL requires it to be put to sleep a second time.

Recoil Down +1: Allows for slightly faster firing in Siege mode. Pierce ammunition causes large recoil to begin with and this mitigates the disadvantage.

Ruthlessness: Combined skill consisting of Weakness Exploit (increases damage by 5% against weak areas like monster's head) and Critical Eye +2 (Affinity +15%). This is why it's important to aim at the head and not other less-vulnerable areas like wings or feet.

Peak Performance: Same effect as (but stacks with) Attack Up Large when health is full. Relatively easy to maintain considering the monster should be locked down for the entirety of the hunt.

Pierce Up: +10% damage for Pierce shots. At G-rank, this adds more damage than the Attack Up skills so this is more important.

Notes
As I've said before, this is my Hame HBG set and it's proven itself quite good at farming. I've gotten flak from higher HR gunners for not having Attack Up Large, but all of the HBGers I've seen with an AUL hame set all have Attack +14 ooo talismans. The best one I got so far is an Attack +13 o--, which is nowhere near as good as my Pierce +5 ooo. I'll throw the skills through Athena's ASS now and again if I get a new talisman in the appropriate areas, but for now this is what I use.

To mitigate the slightly lower attack, I make sure to eat Might Seeds after I apply Wystones whenever the monster is sleeping.

Also, that +9 Bomb Boost really bothers me. If I only had one more slot...

Here's a set to complete the Egg Delivery type quests. The required skills are relatively easy to get, and as such there are quite a few open slots.

Weapon Required: Blademaster ---

Talisman Required: Maestro +4 oo-, Maestro +2 ooo

Weapon Used: Maqam Sedition (Hunting Horn)

Talisman Used: Ice Attack +6, Maestro +10 oo-

Armor Schematic

Weapon

Grand Mizuha Mask (Transporter Jewel 1)

Tetsucabra Mail Z (Transporter Jewel 1, Transporter Jewel 1)

Grand Mizuha Sleeves (Transporter Jewel 1, Transporter Jewel 1)

Rath Soul Coil Z

Rath Heart Greaves Z

Talisman (Wind Res Jewel 2)

If you use a weapon with 2 slots, you can also stick in two Expert Jewel 2s and activate Critical Eye +1, but that is in no way necessary.

Important Skills

HG Earplugs: This is so you can keep moving when monsters in your area roar. Careful if there's Tigrex around, as you'll take damage from being too close to them and drop the egg.

Windproof (High): Negates the effects of most wind pressure, to minimize the chances of it blowing you away and dropping the egg.

Horn Maestro: Elongates the effects of your Horn songs by 60 seconds. The reason why this is a Horn set in the first place is because of the infinite stamina song.

Pro Transporter: If there is one skill to definitely have it is this one, this one makes you run a lot faster when carrying eggs.

Notes
First off, this is a set specialized in transporting eggs (or other heavy objects) in those annoying quests and as such must be used properly. Any weapon can be used, but I prefer the Maqam Sedition HH for several reasons. First off, if you were unaware, HHs have songs that can be played that give buffs that last for a few minutes, and one of them is Negate Stamina Use and the Seregios HH has Negate Stamina Use (L) which is the best. Also, it is a powerful weapon with high raw and natural purple sharpness which is easy to maintain thanks to the evasion self-sharpening mechanic. Finally, it has two slots which will come in handy if you are interested in this armor set but don't have a good enough talisman. An honorable mention is the fact that it also has defense boosting and wind ignoring songs as well as the all-important infinite stamina.

Your food choice should be fish/egg and milk, steamed (third option) to give some skills that are beneficial. Felyne Supercat prevents small things like Bnahabra stings from interrupting you, and also slows stamina depletion while running. Felyne Escape Artist prevents the increased stamina usage from running away from a large monster, which adds up quicker than you think. Finally, Felyne Lander prevents the staggering animation when jumping off of a taller ledge. Regardless of how long a horn melody lasts for, it's unlikely to remain up for the entirety of the journey back to the camp's box.

Even if you haven't played HH before, don't let the song notation of the Maqam Sedition intimidate you; purple is X, blue is A, and orange is X+A attacks. The important ones are as follows:
- Negate Stamina Use (L): X -> X+A -> A -> X+A
- All Wind Pressure Negated: A -> A -> X+A
- Defense Boost (L): X -> A -> A -> X
After all songs, play them by pressing R, and encore them by pressing R again close to the end of the first melody (keep pressing R until the hunter moves again). What I usually do is input the proper melody sequence (notes will 'clink' and have filled in backgrounds when it matches) and sheathe the weapon. Once you are next to the egg and it's safe to play the song, draw into the play animation with X+A+R. Don't forget to encore! Also, you can evade out of the encore to cancel the animation.

You can even go out of your way to have your Palicoes be of the Protection forte, as they will often try to taunt the monster to get its attention off of you. Any and every little bit helps!

This was a commissioned set by SgtDennis, who wanted to try out a new weapon (Longsword) and needed a relatively easy armor set to use it with. He gave me only two requirements; HG Earplugs so he wouldn't have to worry about any roars, and Focus because he found that the more mobile monsters resulted in his Spirit gauge emptying more often than not.

Weapon Required: Blademaster oo-

Talisman Required: FastCharge +4 o--

Weapon Used: Chaos/Loi (Longsword)

Talisman Used: FastCharge +4 oo- (he used KO +7, FastCharge +4 o--)

Armor Schematic

Weapon (Charger Jewel 1, Earplug Jewel 1)

Selene Helm X (Charger Jewel 3)

Kaiser Mail X (Attack Jewel 2)

Grand Mizuha Sleeves (Attack Jewel 2)

Excello Coil Z (Earplug Jewel 3)

Tetsucabra Greaves X

Talisman (Charger Jewel 1)

Note: Feet are Torso Up parts, so use whatever you have (Velociprey/Maiden's Socks).

Important Skills

Attack Up (Medium): This was the best thing to do with a weapon with naturally high raw and low elemental damage. Ideally this would be pushed higher to Attack Up L/XL but this is good enough for now.

Focus: Requested, in order to aid in the filling of the Spirit gauge when hunting quicker or more mobile monsters like Tigrex.

Notes
There's not much to say about this armor set other than it requires you to be G3 or Crown, as you need to fight Chaos Magala and trade for Ceadeus parts to make the hat. Perhaps a better set may be made with a better talisman, but we haven't gone farming in awhile.

It is a bit difficult to make, requiring quite a lot of the rare drops. The Serene Helm X requires a Contrary Scale, the Kaiser Mail X requires a Teostra Gem, the Grand Mizuha Sleeves requires a Large Elder Dragon Gem, and the Earplug Jewel 3 requires a Chameleos Gem. Quite a lot of things to farm, although Jacob had made the Mikumikumi template set earlier so he had leftover Chameleos parts. Also, him using the Baibai Kaiser set extensively means that the Kaiser Mail and Torso Up feet were already created and upgraded with armor spheres.

I am not that familiar with the LS, but he seems to like it so far so I figure I'd share it.

I realized that even though the Gunlance is my first love and having well over 1000 hours of experience with it, I have not yet made an armor set bespoke for it. I started with the Mikumikumi and then into the Honed Blade template, thanks to both my Handicraft +5 oo- and Artillery +14 --- talismans.

Partbreaker: Came with the EX Borealis pieces, and needed a couple of gems to activate. This actually is in line with the Gunlance philosophy though, as shelling is great at exploding pieces off of monsters early in the hunt. This is particularly helpful with monsters like Gravios, where broken body parts become extremely vulnerable.

Notes
I was unable to fit in any form of Earplugs, but them's the breaks. Because I made this set specifically for the Wide-type Gunlances that I rarely use because of its sharpness consumption, Steady Hand and Sharpness +1 were the main targets. We shall see, so far I've been ok with guarding during roars since shelling with Wide type shells is normally done one at a time, and it has the weakest Wyvernfire.

It's not just limited to the Wide type GLs, any one of them benefit from Artillery God. Or any Impact type CB for that matter.

Evasion +1: Great when combined with Evade Extender. Gaijinhunter prefers a higher Evasion skill than I do, as I think he likes hopping through roars which is difficult to do reliably with only +1.

Normal Up: Gives 10% boost to damage dealt with Normal type shots. Since majority of the time you will be using Normal S Lv2, this increases damage more than Attack Up XL (30 raw vs 25 for AUXL).

Sneak: Makes monsters less likely to target you. This is handy since you will be stuck in place during rapid volleys, and also due to the decreased defense that gunner armor provides. Let the blademasters soak damage for you, they're meant to handle it.

Trajectory: Extends the critical distance for your shots. This is handy for shooting from further away, and combines well with the zero deviation present on the LBG. Maximizing your volley damage is key to low hunt times.

Notes
The fact that this LBG reloads a round every time you evade makes it a very powerful weapon in the sense that you don't have to waste time with manual reloads. Increasing evasion abilities makes this also difficult to get hit, and the Life hone allows you to heal back slowly so you are not forced to sheathe in order to take advantage of Peak Performance. This results in a highly mobile and relatively resilient hunter, which is a lot of fun to play. The Vayu Sedition also has Slicing S on rapid, so you are able to go for the tails too should you be in a party with GS, Hammer or Horn users.

A nice side effect of the set in the way I have it configured is the 11 Fire res, which is handy fighting against the Rath and Gravios families.

If you're looking for a good set to use with the Seregios LBG, look no further. Sneak is not a required skill, and you can easily gem in a higher Evasion instead.

I wanted to make a non-hame HBG set for more hunts, and upon looking at the stats for the Griffon Blazooka I wanted to create a set that would take advantage of it, although this is a good set for any Bow/Bowgun that fires Normal/Pierce S or Rapid/Pierce type arrows.

HG Earplugs: Essential for keeping yourself in Siege mode when monsters roar or go Apex, this ensures that you'll be able to exit out of Siege at your convenience rather than the monsters'. This is also helpful for getting some shots in while the monster is roaring, which is free damage on a temporarily immobile target.

Recoil Down +1: Necessary for Pierce shots, this allows for quicker shooting for higher DPS.

Evade Extender: Near necessary for HBG, this is so you are able to move around without having to resort to the extremely slow sheathing animation.

Pierce Up: 10% bonus damage for Pierce shots, which the Blazooka Sieges both Pierce S2 and S3. This was easier to get than Silver Bullet, which is a combined skill of Normal/Pierce/Pellet Up.

Bonus Skills

Critical Eye +1: This came naturally thanks to the high Expert that comes with the Yian Garuga X armor. It is actually useful, helping reign in the -30% affinity that the bowgun comes with which results in more reliable damage output.

Notes
I love doing Hame runs with the Gravios Gigacannon, but the largest problem I faced using my Hame armor set in normal hunts is the frustration of needing to always be at full health, and the fact that you only have a magazine of 60 Pierce shots per level. The Blazooka sieges both Pierce (60+60) and Normal (99+99), which means realistically I will never run out of bullets during a multiplayer hunt. Also, the lack of hearing protection meant that I was often prevented from shooting when the monster is vulnerable.

All of these skills were chosen to maximize my style of play, which focuses heavily on Siege and the specific type of ammunition I am firing. Normally I chamber the Normal shots while hunting, using the relatively limited Pierce shots only when the monster is immobilized by status, or post-mount. Most of the time this means running around with Normal S2, unless hunting a larger monster like Gravios or Chameleos then Normal S3 works better due to its fragmentation.

This is a relatively difficult set to make, both the armor and the weapon. The Yian Garuga parts require you to cut its tail and break its wings, and the G-rank Torso Up waists require either an Amatsu Ticket (super Gog, GX Welkin), rare drops from both Deviljho and Seltas Queen (Vangis X), or breaking the face and chopping the tail off of Savage Deviljho (Esurient Z). The gun itself requires breaking the horns of both regular and Black Diablos. Also, because of the lack of slots in the gun you are required to have a difficult to get Recoil +6 ooo talisman. It took me awhile to make this set, but in the end it's all worth it.

510 base attack is great, shared with only the Fatalis HBG which only sieges Normal S3. There are only a select few HBGs with higher attack, namely the Ukanlos Skyblaster with 525 (only sieges Cluster S2/3 and Freeze S) and Eldaora's Delphinidae at 540 (only sieges Normal/Pierce S3, and has -50% affinity). Even the mighty Gravios Gigacannon has a base attack of 480, but it also has more predictable deviation and gives you +40 defense.

The only complaint I have is with the gun itself, the Blazooka has LR Severe deviation. If you are particularly unlucky that means using this weapon is like playing with a Nerf blaster, accuracy at any kind of range is impossible. However, I noticed that in practical terms, the deviation isn't that bad since you have to be somewhat close to the monsters in order to be within critical distance. A side effect of having heavy deviation is being able to siege Pierce ammo and breaking all kinds of parts due to the irregular paths the bullets take without having to move the reticle.

I also love how well the colors of the armor set come together. Color the Seregios hat dark grey and the Savage Deviljho waist dark green, and it has amazing color coordination. It also matches well with the color gradient on the Diablos horns that are on the Griffon Blazooka as well. Overall, I think this is the best fashion hunter weapon+armor set I've ever done. Too bad the red shine of the Attack honing is kind of out of place, but you'd be insane to use this set without it.

If I get a better talisman in the future, namely one with both Recoil and Normal Up, I should be able to get it to Recoil Down +2. The Forceshot decorations (Normal Up) fight the Recoil skill points, and as a result my talisman only gives an effective Recoil +4.

This is a set based completely on sieging Normal 2/3 shots. Eating for Felyne Temper helps a lot with Pierce, but the increased deviation (and generally high deviation of Pierce guns in general) made me want to try out something with just the basics.

HG Earplugs: Favorite skill that makes you immune to all noises, including Apex transformations

Recoil Down +1: Helps with pumping as much damage out as possible. It also makes it faster

Evade Extender: Necessary for HBG, as it turns out

Normal Up: 10% raw damage increase for all Normal shots, this is the highest damage boosting skill there is and thus it is priority.

Bonus Skills

Attack Up Medium: Thanks to my talisman, I was able to fit in further damage increasing skills. It is not by any means necessary especially in group hunts, due to the more mobile nature of Normal shot gunning.

Constitution +1: Because of all the Seregios armor parts it only needed a single point to activate. This allows for more continuous rolling when trying to avoid danger, which helps mobility.

Notes
The choice of gun is all down to your playstyle. I built it with the Monodevilblaster in mind, but for me it's better off with the Akantor Skysounder. The MDB has a larger magazine size for everything it can load, much quicker reload and zero deviation. However, the MDB has 508 attack with 0% affinity, and the AS has 492 attack with 40% affinity; this results in effectively 541 attack for a roughly 6.5% higher damage output. The AS can also siege Crag 3 and Pierce 2, making it generally more useful even though none of the skills support them much. The MDB's additional siege options, Normal 1 and Pellet 2, are useless online. Building and honing the MDB is slightly easier especially since it's r9 instead of r10, but the AS performs better and looks a lot cooler.

For those of you that are new to gunning, Normal 2 is your default shot. It does damage based on point of impact, use online resources like Kiranico to find out where you should be aiming (generally monster head or feet). Normal 3 does less damage than Normal 2 on point of impact, but it fragments and then impacts other areas on a monster. This is more useful with larger ones like Chameleos or Gravios, as it is sort of like Pierce shot but doesn't go completely through. Do not ever use Normal 1, as this does minimal amounts of damage.

I had a lot of fun making this set, but in practice this is not as useful as Pierce guns generally speaking. Normal shots are nice when a monster is running around, but post-mount immobility means that more powerful (Pierce, Crag) shots steal the spotlight. Hunt times were higher when doing the Apex Diablos Event quest compared to when I used the Blazooka set, and as a result I have retired this one.

Note that both the arms and feet are Torso Up parts, so anything you have will work. I just chose the ones I did in order to bump up Fire resistance to >10, to mitigate burn damage taken if I get caught by a Rathalos fireball.

Important Skills

Charm God: Ups the odds to 50% of getting two charms when a mining spot would've given you one

Gathering God: Always allows the maximum amount of hits off of each gathering spot. This means you get 1-2 extra cracks at each mining node.

Speed Gatherer: Greatly reduces the time spent gathering, mining, and carving. I didn't know how necessary this was in dropping SQ times, and complements Gathering God well (you spend as much or less total time mining than normal hunters without GG/SG).

Mounting Master: Eases the SQ conditions, since you have to complete two mounts to reliably break the Rath's back.

Bonus Skills

Quick Sheath: This one came naturally by tripling the chest armor, but it is a handy skill nonetheless. Guarantees a free carve without interruptions after chopping the tail, and a quicker return to damage should you make the Rath fall down and drop a shiny.

Notes
The talisman again is quite easy to find, you're not required to have a godly one if you've gone through the trouble of getting the FHX. If it has a secondary skill in Mounting, that would be ideal since Rodeo God would be nice. No other skill is even relevant, since the only other skill even present in the armor is Commander +3.

The Fimbulvetr was chosen because it had the best raw damage, sharpness, and element for all the 3-slot glaives. There aren't that many good ones... That being said, it is also ridiculously easy to make. All you have to do is hunt a few HR and GR Zams, and cut tails off of S.Zins. The hardest part may be breaking its dorsal fin to get the Grandfins, but Zams do not have a rare drop to speak of.

Also, honing the glaive for defense is necessary in order to prevent yourself from getting 2-shotted. The lower rarity on the BBV and especially the Iron Belt means you will need a whole bunch of Divine Armor Spheres in order to buff them to normal standards and that is not worth it. +60 defense and built-in Defender Lo helped a lot more than I expected it to.

Recently I had looked at updating the armor list since I noticed that the Star Knight armor set wouldn't show up even when searching for relevant skills (Challenger +2, Rodeo God). To my dismay, Athena's ASS had been updated twelve times since I had downloaded it. Originally running v1.01b, I downloaded v1.13b and got to work looking at all my old sets. White Fatalis was one of (if not the) last Event quests, and as such it enabled me to make a Mk.II version of my anti-blast monster CB set.

Weapon Required: Blademaster o--

Talisman Required: Edgemaster +4 ---

Weapon Used: Desert Rose (Charge Blade) Attack Hone

Talisman Used: Edgemaster +4 ---

Armor Schematic

Weapon (Earplug Jewel 1)

White Fatalis Head

Garuga Mail X (Microbio Jewel 1, Microbio Jewel 1)

Kujula Grip (Microbio Jewel 1)

Esurient Faulds Z

Rath Soul Greaves Z (Expert Jewel 1)

Talisman (Decorations)

Waist is Torso Up parts, so use whatever you want. Also, I was surprised since that was the first time Azure Rath parts have been included in a mixed armor set that I've made.

Important Skills

HG Earplugs: Free A-charge attack when monster roars to charge up to at least yellow

Razor Sharp: The only thing I would complain about my original Bioboob set was that the CBs have crappy sharpness similar to GL due to the phial bursts, adding in Razor Sharp became a necessity.

Honed Blade: Rather than keeping with the Dokudomi template I did a full custom one, but Honed Blade was still kept for the sharpness boost into purple and attack buff

Critical Eye +2: White Fatalis, Garuga and Azure Rath parts made it to Expert +14 by itself, so I spent the extra slot to bump it up. This adds damage nicely, boosting effective attack from 972 to 1008.

Notes
I did not expect that big of a difference between AASS 1.01b and 1.13b, but I suppose there's a reason why Event quests were time locked. This basically took the original Mk.I and added two extremely relevant skills for keeping dps high for free. This was tremendous, and the loss of Latent Power +1 does not bother me at all. However this set does require quite a beastly talisman, Edgemaster +4 ---.

There is no Status Atk relevant, since paralysis is the recommended status application for dealing with blast type monsters. Immobilizing them in or outside of traps means the team can pound in some unobstructed damage, which leads to more reliable and less time consuming hunts. Normally in our group we go in with one or two Desert Roses and one or two Paralyzing Vines/Iorovellirs. Other hunters can focus on raw or elemental (water) damage, as blast-type monsters are too in-your-face for poison to be as effective.

For the fashion hunters out there, this set looks a lot better than the old one despite not having any real color coordination between parts. The Miralis armor is just so out of place with it being that milky purple color, and the Chameleos mask doesn't really fit the theme either.

I noticed the Belobog's Scythe in my equipment box a few days ago and wondered why I haven't used it before. Impact phial, 230 poison, only 864 attack but 35% affinity and natural purple (with great white) sharpness? Sign me up.

Hands and feet are Torso Up parts. It's not possible to push Ice resistance past +10 with this set unfortunately, the highest you can go is +6 and that's using some very low rank gear.

Important Skills

Critical Eye +3: The CB's already high affinity will be boosted further to take maximum advantage of another skill I have below, Status Crit. Any amount of added crit is helpful, but this is not a necessary skill. Critical Eye +1 helps too, but more is better for both status application and damage.

HG Earplugs: High grade not necessary for Kushala, but just to keep it safe for other monsters or use in a team I decided to push the extra +5.

Status Crit: Allows the CB to do poison on critical hits, which is important for consistency as status application is highly dependent on number of hits done rather than the actual value.

Artillery Novice: This one was added so this CB can be more flexible, as Artillery skills boost the amount of damage that the Impact phials do when used.

Razor Sharp: Not strictly necessary, but this skill means you will almost never have to sharpen mid-fight. You can use whetstones whenever the monster moves map locations and you should still be fine.

Notes
This was a set designed to blend roles between status application and direct damage, and I think on that front it succeeds. Not needing Handicraft or Edgemaster frees up skill space for other relevant things. I've used this set a few times against Kushala and it seemed to do very well when I'm not feeling like playing the MMM GL set.

The only gripes I have with this armor set are the low defense and the strange look thanks to the Chaoshroom. I have nothing against white hair and in fact love how the Empress X set looks, but I don't like it for some reason.

This is my satisfactorily completed Seregios LBG multiplayer armor set. It focuses on being able to rapid fire from wherever I want while drawing the least amount of aggro. It does require a beast of a talisman if you want the attack-boosting skills though.

Weapon Required: Gunner oo-

Talisman Required: None (without Attack Up Small and Weakness Exploit)

Weapon Used: Vayu Sedition (Light Bowgun) Silencer, Life Hone

Talisman Used: Tenderizer +6, Attack +11 o--

Armor Schematic

Weapon (Tenderizer Jewel 1, Tenderizer Jewel 1)

Regios Cap X (Ninja Jewel 1, Ninja Jewel 1, Ninja Jewel 1)

Sororal Vest (Evasion Jewel 2)

Nargacuga Guards X (Forceshot Jewel 1, Forceshot Jewel 1)

Esurient Coat Z

Sororal Leggings (Forceshot Jewel 3)

Talisman (Ninja Jewel 1)

Important Skills

Fleet Feet: Evade Extender and Peak Performance combined skill, this is the core of the Sororal LBG set

Evasion +1: Also core to the Sororal LBG set, activated with a single Evasion Jewel 2 in the chest

Normal Up: Increases the damage of Normal shots, which provides a huge boost for the Normal 2 volleys you'll spend most of your time firing with this set

Sneak: It's hotly debated how much this skill benefits a gunner, who by default draws higher than average aggro from monsters. All I can say is that it's worth it, especially when combined with the Silencer.

Bonus Skills

Attack Up Small: Small boost to attack thanks to +11 off my talisman. Every little bit helps in order to lower hunt times.

Weakness Exploit: Also thanks to my talisman, this adds 5% raw damage whenever attacking. With the Vayu Sedition having 300 true attack, that's the equivalent of Attack Up Medium since Normal shots should be aimed for the head or legs anyway.

Notes
I've used this to great success in 2-4 player hunts, particularly effectively against Gravios and Kirin. Gravios move very slowly and tend to be stuck in one spot for a relatively long time when doing certain attacks (hyper beam and extended fire fart). Kirin tend to be difficult to hit with Blademaster weapons in general, particularly in large groups. Aiming for the Kirin's head is important to break the horn, although Weakness Exploit doesn't trigger anywhere unless the head when the horn is broken.

Automatic reloading upon evade is the strength of this set, and the reason why a limiter-on Seregios LBG has HBG levels of damage output. I kept it honed for Life due to Peak Performance needing 100% health, and attached the silencer to minimize the chance of being targeted by the monsters.

I will make another armor set for an ultra-aggressive Gios LBG, but for now this is the one I use.

Attack Up Medium: Normal bonus to attack value, which is what the next two skills base off of.

Adrenaline +2: 30% bonus to attack when health is below 40% of maximum.

Fortify: 20% attack buff (and 30% defense buff) after fainting two times. This is the core skill of this set, and what the Expedition unlimited faints mechanic helps greatly. You don't have to worry about triple carting, and thus safely keeping the 20% attack buff which stacks with any other buffs from Adrenaline or Challenger.

Bonus Skills

Bombardier: Increases the damage of barrel bombs and blast procs significantly (20-30%). Comes built in with the Brachydios X set, but if you use any of the Gogmazios weapons (natural purple sharpness, sleep element) you can occasionally sleep bomb. Also works well with any blast element weapons, but those generally have bad sharpness so it may not fit well unless you gem in Sharpness+1 and/or Razor Sharp as well.

Notes
This is the starter Expedition set that takes advantage of unlimited carts, with Fortify and Adrenaline working together after eating for (and successfully obtaining) Felyne Foodie which grants you no food bonus losses after fainting. GS, swaxe, Hammer and Horn have highest motion values and general attack which makes it a great match for this set. Weapons that focus on elemental, status, or alternate (ie. GL shelling) sources of damage won't work as well. With a good weapon you can easily push raw attack past 2000 and completely decimate monsters.

I will be working on a better and more customized set in the future, but for now give this one a try.

There's not much else for me to say, if you want more info then check out the reddit page.